STARLIT SUPERNOVA. h. potter

iii. Your Greatest Fear

starlit supernova
❛ iii. your greatest fear ❜

━━━━━ THE THOUGHT OF Dumbledore having been the one to have kept her birth mother's letter for all those years was something that wouldn't leave Nova's mind. She knew it was a leap, and that she was grasping at straws to get what she wanted, but it wouldn't just leave her alone.

               She blamed it all on Professor McGonagall. "Look at all the angles," the Transfiguration teacher told her. Think of every possibility, every scenario possible. And the first one to pop into Nova's head was that Dumbledore had given McGonagall the letter before she left for the Holloway house on Nova's eleventh birthday. If that was true, then that meant the Headmaster had somehow had gotten his hands on the letter from Nova's biological mother — he could know her mother.

               She didn't know how Dumbledore would've gotten ahold of it if he didn't know who her birth mother was. But what did she have to lose? It wasn't like he would kick her out for simply asking if he knew her birth mother. (Well ... he could if she got on the old man's nerves just enough.) The Hufflepuff can't deny it, she was giddy at the thought of being so close to an answer. She had spent too much time running into dead ends to not be excited; however, her excitement was popped rudely by Ernie.

               "You sound nutty," he decided oh-so wisely, swinging his fork in front of her face. "You seriously believe that Dumbledore would've held onto that for eleven years?"

               "Well, someone did!" Nova scowled. "McGonagall said someone gave it to her. Who else could it have been?"

               Ernie gave her a tired look. "Your birth mom, Nova."

               Her friends knew of the letter that had been given to her on her eleventh birthday. They had all read it, too. But that's all they knew. Nova had always stayed quiet about her dreams. She knew that was odd for Muggles, and that it was still odd for witches — especially to say you had dreams about Harry Potter, and your birth mother whispering the name Caroline to you. Do you know how many people would just assume she was boy-crazy? Or that she just had some sort of identity crisis because of her adoption?

               Nova's feelings only felt justified when she tried to tell them about that vision on the Hogwarts Express, and they just looked at her like she was crazy.

               "I've told you this before," she insisted, leaning across the table. She dug her finger into the wooden grooves as so to not sway. "McGonagall said she doesn't know who my mum is."

               "Er — Nova?" Justin spoke up hesitantly. "Professor McGonagall could've been lying. Professors lie all the time — you know, like, the importance of work outside of class?"

               "Why would she lie about the letter?" countered Nova. "She wouldn't gain anything by lying about that."

               "Maybe she was told to lie," offered Hannah. "Maybe your mother told her to lie. The letter says something about your mum not wanting you to know who she is, doesn't it?"

               "And that she was involved with dangerous people," Justin recalled. "Personally, I would listen to her and just leave it."

               "Yeah, well," Nova grumbled, "none of you got a letter from a biological mum who you've never met. I want to know why she gave me up for adoption. You wouldn't get it. None of you had been given up for adoption and given a letter saying to not find her."